We honor our Fallen Brothers and Sisters of
Law Enforcement from Around the World.

MEMORIAL STATUE DEDICATION CEREMONY

The statue was designed by Brodin Studios, Inc.
Law Enforcement Recognition
Minneapolis, MN (c) 1995 All Rights Reserved

~ author unknown~

When the Lord
was creating peace officers, He was into His sixth day of overtime. An angel
appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

And the Lord
said, "Have you read the specs on this order? A peace officer has to
be able to run five miles through alleys in the dark, scale walls, enter
homes the health inspector wouldn't touch, and not wrinkle his uniform.
He has to be able to sit in an undercover car all day on a stakeout, cover
a homicide scene that night, canvas the neighborhood for witnesses and testify
in court the next day. He has to be in top physical condition at all times,
running on black coffee and half-eaten meals. And he has to have six pairs
of hands."

The angel shook
her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way!"

"It's
not the hands that are causing me problems", said the Lord, "It's
the three pairs of eyes the officer has to have."

"That's
on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded.
"One pair that sees through a bulge in a pocket before he asks, 'May
I see what's in there, sir?' (When he already knows and wishes he'd taken
that accounting job.) Another pair here in the side of his head for his
partner's safety. And another pair of eyes here in front that can look reassuringly
at a bleeding victim and say 'You'll be all right, Ma'am', when he knows
it isn't so."

"Lord,"
said the angel, touching his sleeve, "Rest and work on this tomorrow."

"I can't,"
said the Lord. "I already have a model that can talk a 250-pound drunk
into a patrol car without incident and feed a family of five on a civil
service paycheck."

The angel circled
the model of the peace officer very slowly. "Can it think?" she
asked.

"You bet,"
said the Lord. "It can tell you the elements of a hundred crimes; recite
Miranda warnings in its sleep; detain, investigate, search, and arrest a
gang member on the street in less time than it takes five learned judges
to debate the legality of the stop..and it still keeps its sense of humor."
"This officer also has phenomenal personal control. He can deal with
crime scenes painted in hell, coax a confession from a child abuser, comfort
a murder victim's family and then read in the daily paper how law enforcement
isn't sensitive to the rights of criminal suspects."

Finally, the
angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the peace officer.
"There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told you that you were
trying to put too much into this model."

"That's
not a leak," said the Lord. "It's a tear."

"What's
the tear for?" asked the angel.

"It's
for bottled-up emotions, for fallen comrades, for commitment to that funny
piece of cloth called the American flag, for justice."

The RealAudio file used here was created by NiteOwl^ and is
strictly used as a demonstration of the type of music used as a salute to
a fallen officer. This version of the song "Amazing Grace" is
performed by The Gordon Highlanders and copyrighted 1996 by Premiere Music
Company.